Argentina

[4. Nov 2008]

We are in paradise! Freedom, easy times are waiting for us! This boarder crossing was the most important one for us since we entered Latin America in Mexico. We finally managed to enjoy our time in Bolivia, but still it was not an easy time and we were getting tired of cold winds, bad roads, “difficult” people and always the same food.

What happens when we come into a country that motivates us, meet pavement and a long, slight downhill? We manage to ride more than 200 kilometers in one day! This was one of the last things on our “to-do-list”, after having ridden over 100 km/h and 2700 meters of altitude already. Done :-)

After riding down from the Altiplano, summer was waiting for us in Northern Argentina. Suddenly all around us everything was green, bees were humming and we cycled along beautiful lakes. We enjoyed every minute of our first summer day, it felt like summer in Switzerland. To complete the summer feeling we noted with great joy that there are campgrounds everywhere here. Nearly every town has its own municipal campground, fully equipped with BBQs, of course. For the first time since the US we stayed on a campground, it was like coming home.

We knew in Argentina everything will be different. We were looking forward to an improved living standard, good food and full supermarkets. What we found in Argentina was far beyond what we had imagined. The meat is incredible, different from every meat we ever ate, the supermarkets are full of delicious things – there is a choice between different types of Gnocchi and different types of grated cheese! – but there is even more than this. In Salta there is a shop for professional audio equipment, there are huge electronic superstores, and there even is a shop that only sells ball bearings!

You realize you are back in a highly civilized country, when:

• eleven year old kids calculate in their head like hardly any adult was able to do in Bolivia or Peru
• when teenagers attend you in a restaurant super friendly and charming
• when after a “dangerous road section” an “end of dangerous road section” sign follows
• when since a week you have been eating the most delicious food only
• when households have a private computer with Internet connection
• when people know Switzerland and where it is
• when the Police stops you because you are riding against a one way road

In Salta we teamed up a third time with Florent from France who had made his way through the lagoons route on his bike (and confirmed it was a good idea for us not to go there by bike). Together we rode towards Cafayate, one of the famous wine regions of Argentina. We were riding through a perfect cycling region, the well paved road led us through a beautiful landscape and there was hardly any traffic on the road. Every evening a camping spot with BBQ was waiting for us. This is how we imagined cycling would be like here!

In Conception we had the chance to learn to know Argentinean life very closely. We were invited by good friends of Stefan’s girlfriend, a family where she once stayed for an exchange year. A real Argentinean family with five daughters, two sons and two grandchildren and therefore a lot of action was waiting for us. Here we could experience the open hearted way of life, the many influences of several European countries, especially Italy and Spain, discuss the famous problem concerning the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas, sorry) and the crisis of the football national team of Argentina (soon Switzerland will play better), learned about the terribly corrupt government and, very important for us, had the chance to learn how to prepare a real Argentinean BBQ from the pros.

Life is nice in Argentina, people are happy and do not have to suffer from hunger. We are the “flaquitos” here, the skinny ones. We first tried to explain to people that this is normal for cyclists, that this is “sportive”. After some days we realized that we are super skinny, at least compared to the average Argentinean guy. Men here are bulls, terminators, huge animals walking leisurely through the streets. They are not fat, they are just “very well constructed” have a well nourished appearance. We are working on it, we are keeping up, and we are on a good way (you may notice in the pictures section).

Our little detour to Conception and the hot jungle of the Yungas brought us off the paved road onto some very remote dirt roads. Between Conception and Tinogasta we cycled through beautiful hills, had some hard climbing to do and sandy, hot plains to cross. But we were ready for the fight, there were other friends waiting at the end of the road. When there was only one more day to go to Tinogasta we asked locals about the condition of the direct and short road through the mountains. “This road does not exist anymore”, “you don’t want to go there” and “the second half of the road is better” were the comments. As on the paved main road around the mountains we would have had to cycle some 140 kilometers, we decided to take the risk and went for the adventure choice. It became a real adventure. The road was no road really, the worst we have ever seen. For more than four hours we were pushing our bikes through deep sand and dust and over rock formations that once were road.

When we are mentally prepared for a hard day such conditions are no problem for us. We are used to just go on and keep cool in such situations. Keeping cool was in the end the real problem we had. It was so hot and dry, we were drinking liters and liters and still were constantly thirsty. We carried more water than usually but still run dry way too early. We were getting thirstier and thirstier and there were still many hours to go… While we were crossing many riverbeds (without a drop of water in there) our thoughts started circling around Coca Cola, Ice Tea, cold Sprite… our heads were boiling. After a last unsuccessful attempt to find water in a riverbed far off the road there was nothing left than just continue and try to think about something else than cold drinks. The Sprite we finally bought in Tinogasta was and will probably stay the best one of our life!

Our friend Florian from Zurich once travelled around Argentina, then learned to know this girl here, came back, she came to Switzerland – and he is here now again! There are SOME other towns like Tinogasta in Argentina, the family of his girlfriend could live anywhere, but no, they live at the foot of the Passo San Francisco. Perfect for us, this pass is a fix point on our map since we started the trip. We enjoy some more BBQ hours here, chat for hours with Flo and the family of his girlfriend and store the necessary calories for what is coming next.

After Tinogasta the road starts rising, rises very high, up to one more dream of our trip, one highlight for every South America cyclist: the Passo San Francisco. Hundreds of kilometers of wilderness, a “landscape like on Mars” and some more very cold nights are waiting for us. Let’s get into the next adventure!

[26. November 2008]

The Paso San Francisco is famous for its beauty, its remoteness and especially for its wind. We knew we are riding it from the “wrong” side, will have to fight the always present wind from the west. Usually this only applies in the high regions of the pass, while riding up the local up-valley winds can also be in your back. Our timing was not a good one as exactly during the days we climbed up there was an unusually strong wind from the west that even affected the lower regions behind the pass. Instead of rolling up the slight grades gently we constantly fought a terribly strong wind from the side or right into our face. After we cycled in this wind all windy conditions we had before seem like a gentle breeze.

What makes the wind up there special is not only its impressive strength but the fact that it does not stop blowing after sunset. During the first two nights the storm continued with full power. Setting up a tent not to mention sleeping in the tent would have been a terrible experience. In such a moment the simplest shelter becomes as valuable as a penthouse suite, just a place to stay safe from the wind. There are many of these penthouse suites on the way up the Paso San Francisco. Because the pass is opened all year and snow can surprise people in the winter, the Argentinean government built little shelters – simple but very strong constructions of steel and concrete – with an emergency phone and a fireplace. We slept in many hotel rooms of varying quality already on this trip but never ever did we feel as comfortable and protected as in these tiny huts with the wind roaring outside.

The higher up we came the more intense became the colors of the dry landscape around us. We were riding through a long valley that we would call “alley of the colors”. On both sides the mountains rose high and displayed a spectacle of blue, purple, brown, black and red that easily competes with the breathtaking landscape we saw in Bolivia. The crossing of the pass became, very surprisingly, a huge challenge that demanded all of our power. The road was steep, that’s nothing special, but together with the storm-like wind against us and the fact that we seem to have lost a lot of our altitude training the last 20 kilometers up to the pass on 4750 meters became the hardest stretch on the trip so far!

A little further the hard work was rewarded with the addition of another color to the color palette: sparkling, brightly shining green the Laguna Verde lay in front of us. The coronation of the circus of colors. This night we were pampered by a German-Chilean couple with Swiss food and enjoyed a bath in the thermal springs right at the shore of the Laguna Verde. What a reward after these hard days!

After having passed the ridiculously pedantic control of the Chilean boarder control (fruits and other fresh food are strictly forbidden) at the ridiculously large boarder control building (only about 300 cars per year pass this frontier post) we entered the last country of our travel, Chile, number 14!

At 4300 meters the downhill started, at 300 it ended. 150 kilometers of pure downhill, no counter slopes. The perfect downhill? Not at all! You remember -> Paso San Francisco = wind! Of the 150 kilometers we could enjoy only some 30 kilometers of riding without pedaling, the rest of it we were fighting against our old enemy, the terrible headwind. Nonetheless it was a great experience to ride such a world-class downhill once and we still managed to finish the pass in five days by doing some 170 kilometers on this last day.

An old dream became true, we rode the Paso San Francisco. Our minds are full of beautiful memories and this stretch will be something special for us also after we have done it. On the last evening up there we realized how hardened and experienced cyclists we now (finally!) are. We were riding this hard pass, the circumstances are not at all easy and we still enjoy every minute, have no problem at all.

[12. Dec 2008]

What Pucon is in Chile Bariloche is on the other side in Argentina. More than a million of tourists come to this region every year. Arriving here the first and not so easy thing to do is to find a hostel, a cool one which still has some free beds… Sometimes you need to be a bike traveler. When we entered the “Bolson del Deporte” hostel, the sports hostel, we realized that this is one of the coolest hostels we’ve ever seen. Everything is made of wood, there are many corners with sofas and tables to eat, a movie place with projector, a table tennis, just the perfect place to be for a while. But it was full, of course. When the owner realized that we are traveling by bike she said that if she sends us away her husband would never forgive her… so we stayed in one of their private rooms for the first night, the luxurious ones :-) This is the bike-bonus.

The hostel here is so cool we extended our stay for one day and still it will be hard to leave this heaven of comfort and nice people. Nonetheless motivation to continue is great. In a few days we will cross into Chile again and soon ride on the Carretera Austral! A bike classic, for some bikers the most beautiful road to cycle in the world. We are looking forward to learn to know it!

Being in Patagonia, soon riding on the Carretera Austral we start to realize that our trip is not going to be so long anymore. For a while now our minds are already mentally preparing for “the time after cycling”, the return to Switzerland. We are looking forward to it! More and more people asked us during the last weeks whether we aren’t tired of cycling yet, whether it’s still fun to travel for so long. There is no question about that: we are looking forward to come home to Switzerland but first we have some other very nice things to do and beautiful places to visit. No hurry please.

[05. Jan 2009]

The end of the Carretera Austral is not the end of the world. At least not for hikes and bikers. There is a possibility to cross into Argentina by taking two boats and hike across a little pass on a tiny path. Some years ago this was a real adventure trip and the trekking took several days. Today it became a big tourist thing and horses help to carry the luggage over the pass. It’s even possible to do the whole thing in one day – and this was our plan. The boat in Chile leaves only every third day and there was one on the 31st of December. We were riding in the wild for weeks then and therefore craving some people around us and a good party for New Year’s Eve in El Chalten, Argentina.

Our plan would have worked perfectly if we weren’t these stubborn guys with those principles… On the boat on the Chilean side we could pay with Dollars as we did not have Chilean Pesos left anymore. The guy with the horses who helps transport the luggage over the pass also would have accepted Dollars but to a ridiculous exchange rate. He as well as both boat captains long ago realized that tourists ending up here will have to pay every price they are asked as there is no other possibility to get out of there. After a short discussion in which we made clear that we are not the “okay, it’s just some Dollars more, it’s cheap for us anyway” kind of tourists he just walked away and we did not have horses to carry our luggage.

When we carried our bikes, together with tons of extra food we carried to avoid the expensive prices in the national parks in Argentina, over the pass during the rest of the day – 22 kilometers in seven hours – over a path full of obstacles (the only guy who could get rid of the many trees lying across it is the guy with the horses and not at all interested in making this crossing easier for bikers…), broke our fenders and slit open our bags, motivation was still very good. We felt we’d done the right thing, followed our line of not being the cash cows for some ruthless tourist operators since our bad experiences in Guatemala.

We knew we were going to miss the party in El Chalten but soon realized that this was a far better option: when we came across the pass and first saw Mount Fitz Roy at the end of the valley with Lago del Desierto underneath us we wanted nothing more than staying here for a night and start the new year with one of the most beautiful views we have ever seen. What made the situation even more valuable is the fact that such a clear sky and good weather is very rare at this place.

So we camped at the end of the lake, had a little private party with an American couple and an Argentinean from Buenos Aires and started the new year with a skinny dip in the ice cold lake at midnight. It was wonderful. We hope the pictures will be able to show you what a special place this is.

Some other people also must have heard about Fitz Roy and the magnificent national park surrounding it. When we arrived in El Chalten we found a village that exists only for tourism – locals do not seem to exist there. Nearly every house is a Hotel or a mountain equipment rental shop. We directly headed towards the free campground outside town where we were welcomed with applause by a group of bikers. Wow! Several of them had heard about us already and some knew our web page. There were even tow recumbent riders from Germany! For two days we stayed at the campground, enjoyed the good weather, cleaned our bikes to be ready for pavement again and talked with the bike-gang for hours and hours. Relaxing was program.

On the ride from El Chalten to El Calafate we got an introduction into Patagonian style winds. The first 90 kilometers towards the east were done in three hours – for the last 30 towards the west we needed three hours too… Just a low wind this day, just 60 to 80 km per hour, not like the 130 km/h they had the week before!

The wind will play an important role during the next days of cycling. After visiting famous Perito Moreno Glacier here in El Calafate we will head south to Puerto Natales where another wonder of nature is waiting for us: Torres del Paine!

[21. Jan 2009]

“When we leave this ferry we are there!” We always said we ride our bikes from Alaska to Fireland so arriving at the little port of El Porvenir was actually the “theoretical” completion of our trip. So we could have immediately gone for party and have relieved all the pressure and the nervousness of the last days. It was not like that. There was more to be done, four more days of cycling, going to the south as far as possible, till there is no meter left to roll.

Had the wind be saying “you are not supposed to go here, stop and turn around” so many times on the trip it now seemed to have changed its mind and now went: “ok guys, let’s do this, let’s fly to Ushuaia!” We had a terrific tailwind – no wonder, we were riding directly east. Sometimes we had to break as we would have been to fast for the conditions on the unpaved road!

The higher you fly the deeper you can fall – Stefan should maybe have been braking a little more as his fork suddenly decided to quit working… Some hours after we arrived on Fireland (!) it just snapped and he had a hard landing – physically and metaphorical. Pius continued cycling together with Luc from Belgium, with whom we are cycling for the last four days, while Stefan took a bus to Rio Grande.

“Due to the high standards of the oil industry the best welders of Argentina are down here” we were explained by the guy from our hostel after he spontaneously decided to bring us to his former employer, one of the only places where Aluminum can be welded around here. Like him everyone here seems to be even more welcoming and openhearted than people are generally in South America. Maybe it’s because there is hardly anyone living here and everybody is each others neighbor or maybe they are that happy because the whole island is free of taxes to make the place more attractive for people to move here.

Stefan’s fork is being welded while we are writing this report – we can only pray it’s going to work out well… It has to make it only some 200 km more, only two days are left to Ushuaia. We don’t try to describe how our feelings are right now and especially how they will be during the last kilometers. That’s for the next update, very very soon…

[25. Jan 2009]

The difference between Patagonian wind and the wind we used to call strong until we came here? When we have to pee, in Switzerland, and there is a “strong” wind, we – of course – pee with the wind and not against it. In Patagonia things are not that easy. If you pee with the wind here you will have half of it in your face. The turbulence formed behind your body makes things a mess! You will have to pee standing sidewards to the wind so the yellow steam is carried off constantly. That’s if you can stand at all unlike our friend who had to find a signpost or something else to hold on while relieving himself. Make sure you remember this when you go to Patagonia!

More and more we had to distract our minds with music or audiobooks during the last days of cycling. Thoughts were circling in our heads like crazy, the same things over and over. How will it be when we arrive, how will it be afterwards and what do we have to do then? We realized how easy our life has been in the last one and a half years. Just cycling south and visit beautiful places on the way. The next thing to do was always there right in front of us: get on the bike and ride!

The closer we came to the end the more our thoughts went back to the immeasurable richness of experiences and memories we collected: realizing that the White Russian we were drinking in the VIP lounge of the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas will probably be the best of our life – waiting until the little animals in the dirty water die while cooking dinner in a water pipe under a road in Patagonia – the perfectness of the moment while sitting in the warm and crystal clear water on one of the beaches of the San Blas Islands, drinking and talking long after the breathtaking sunset was over – waking up in a tent full of ants that “ate” their way through the tent floor during the night – arriving on top of the Cotopaxi, having climbed the highest active volcano in the world... Only some examples out of a pool profound enough to provide us with motivation-elixir for a lifetime.

The last kilometers before Ushuaia became a big test for our patience. Kilometers didn’t want to pass, we felt sooo slow, couldn’t wait till we reached our big goal. On the last ten kilometers thoughts were racing, turning around every corner was a thrill... when will we see it? When THE SIGN suddenly appeared in a distance this was like – uh, how to describe this in English – a wave flowing up your spine, overflowing your head, pressing water out of your eyes. The awe-inspiring moment where the energy of one and a half years of adventures, experiences and joy unload in one instant.

As emotional as the first moment was as disillusioning was the continuing afterwards into town. Business as usual, finding the center, book a bus back to Buenos Aires, organize things on the internet. The reason why we did not start partying like crazy immediately was because we were not really at the end of the road. We were in Ushuaia but not in Lapataia, a bay 25 kilometers further southwest and the real end of the road. When we went to eat something and waited until the National Park entrance closed (to save the entrance fee :-) ), we still allowed ourselves a beer and another one and... were in a pretty good mood when we started cycling again.

What a finish this became, as beautiful and impressive as we could have imagined it. The ride through the National Park in the evening ambiance, the arrival at the famous bay, the Champaign and then the sleeping under the starry sky right there on the viewing platform – the perfect end of a perfect trip.

Why was our trip such a big success? We were often asking ourselves why we were always riding in sunshine, had nothing stolen, were happy with the decisions we took, just met nice people and had hardly any bad experiences. Maybe it’s the right mix of preparation but still being able to change plans spontaneously; maybe it’s the experience in traveling from earlier travels combined with a freshness of our minds that did not let us get tired of traveling until the last day; or maybe it’s just luck!

When Pius was getting serious about this project and was looking for somebody to join him he knew he wanted to do this trip with a guy and not with a girl. Too exhausting had it sometimes been during his first big bicycling trip to Russia to feel responsible for the security of his girlfriend. Also he wanted to travel without the “couple-effect”, e.g. preferring to stay in the hotel room in the evenings instead of going out and meet new people. Then there is the sometimes handy fact that two guys are a traveling team but both are traveling independently. In a difficult situation each one is responsible for himself and at certain points it’s possible to say “f… it” and just leave the other alone for some hours.

Of the groups consisting of guys only that start the Panamericana together most do not finish it together. Sooner or later personal problems grow bigger and bigger and in most cases it ends in a big bang that is followed by a separation. Small details pile up and become huge problems because they occur again and again. From the very beginning of the trip we were aware that we were traveling with this risk too. What we did to avoid such problems is talk. For more than a year we reserved some minutes every Sunday evening to talk off things that could become a problem. In the beginning it was difficult and sometimes embarrassing to talk about these often very personal things but after a while we got used to these talks that often were heated discussions but always ended with an agreement. After a year the talks became shorter and shorter – there was nothing to say anymore. We knew each other, knew the weaknesses and problems of the other and accepted them. For the last six months we traveled without noteworthy problems, the talks were not necessary anymore.

One more important factor made things easier in our case: each of us had his own tent, his private world to retreat to after a hard day. The first night on the whole trip we slept in the same tent was shortly before the end of the trip: the eye-infection-night for Stefan in the bus stop on the Carretera Austral in pouring rain. When we slept in one tent for four nights in the Torres del Paine National Park we realized how much it was worth carrying two tents all along our trip.

And then there were our girlfriends and families. When things were not going easy (yeees, it did happen sometimes) it helped a lot to know about this background support always being ready for us. We both had a girlfriend before we started the trip and both are still together with the same girls! Who would have thought that? We! A one-to-three-hour phone call every week and two months of traveling together in Guatemala and Ecuador helped to keep the bonds tight and the love high :-) Thank you girls for the trust and the patience! We’ll have something to make up for when we come back…

One of our fathers once said: “Thank you for fulfilling the dream I could not fulfill when I was young”. Could there be a better support and motivation for a traveler? “No worries dad, that’s ok, it was our dream too and we had the chance to fulfill and entirely enjoy it!”

[25. Jan 2009]

“Oh no, there is our hostel!” We knew these were the last meters on our bikes, the last turns of the wheels. We were talking about this moment many times before: the last clicking out of our pedals, getting off the bike – and this was it. We did not know whether we should be in the mood for party or for crying.

The following days in Ushuaia were filled with pretty much the same feeling. Should we be happy to have successfully finished our big project or should we be sad because we would not be able anymore to ride out into the wild? We did as we always did and just focused on what was coming next.

Coming next was the bus trip to Buenos Aires. As bicycles are strictly forbidden on the buses we disassembled our bikes completely and made them disappear together with our entire luggage – in one bag each! It was a huge bag though, custom made for us. With a diameter to make the rims fit in and a length of the longest frame part we were standing in front of two blue monsters that we were barely able to move. The taxi driver was not happy at all when we tried to get our bags on his rear seat – the trunk was far too small… We assured the bus crew our bags did not exceed the maximum weight of 30 kilos (they probably were closer to some 50 kilos) but some pesos were still necessary to convince them they needed to get us and our bags to Buenos Aires.

Ushuaia – Buenos Aires, 3070 kilometres, 36 hours bus ride. Not only is this bus ride terribly long but also very possibly one the most boring roads in the world. Endless dry grass, pampas and just pampas. Did anyone ever cycle along this road? We hope not! To our surprise we did not leave the bus with sore buts and close to going crazy when we arrived in Buenos Aires. A brand new bus with very comfortable seats, a decent movie program and regular meals made our journey even enjoyable!

This is the last occasion to praise Couchsurfing and we don’t want to miss it. When we arrived in Buenos Aires in the morning, our host Fernando was already gone to work. This was not a problem though as Dea and Maria from Bulgaria, who were also surfing Fernando’s couch, welcomed us at “home”. We were welcomed as if we visited some old friends and felt perfectly fine from the first minute. “Home” is a loft-like flat in the Almagro area, very centrally located in Buenos Aires. Enough space for two Bulgarian and two Swiss couchsurfers, removable roof to let in the (nearly) always shining sun, TV with excellent movie collection (we were living at a movie producer’s place) and last but not least – Fernando, the best host you can think of.

The first days in Buenos Aires were filled with shopping. We did not feel like visiting the famous BA nightlife in our bike shirts and we needed new clothes anyway for our new lives back home in Switzerland. On our way from one shopping centre to the other we slowly learned to know Buenos Aires. We don’t know whether we looked at things in a new way as we were travelling under changed circumstances now or whether Buenos Aires really is as different as it seemed to us. Streets are bigger, houses higher, older and built with a lot of detail and pomp. Our “home” shopping centre for example is located in an old market hall, built with yellow sand stone – huge and very beautiful.

Buenos Aires is famous for its parks, cafes and the vibrant nightlife – things you better explore together with some friends. When Fernando was working he gave us good tips where to go and we explored the city with the Bulgarian girls or met some other cycling friends in town. During the night – the main living time of Fernando – we went to parties we would never have heard of if we just stayed in a hostel like so many other tourists. Enjoying a beer in a street café in the famous Palermo area, clubbing in one of the big (and very gay) nightclubs and feeling like a local at a private party on a rooftop terrace, we had the chance to see it all.

When we felt we needed a brake from partying and drinking we took a bus and rode to the end of Argentina again – this time up to the very north. 17 hours of bus riding to go there and another 17 to get back to Buenos Aires, this must be something very special to visit so it’s worth to sit in a bus for that long again and pay the not-so-cheap-anymore tickets to get there. We were not so sure how a single place can be that beautiful and impressive as everybody was telling us but we at least wanted to give it a try.

In the early morning we went to the National Park, walked through the hot and steaming jungle, then on walkways across shallow water to finally arrive at the platform on top of the rock, the devils nose. In front of us was (we were told we write this again and again) one of the most amazing natural spectacles we’ve seen in our lives: the Iguazu Falls. Thousands of tons of water falling into a void, disappearing in a black hole leaving only a spray that turned us wet in minutes and made taking pictures very difficult. Soaking wet we left the big waterfall just to run into the next amazing surprise. Over a length of four kilometres smaller but not less beautiful falls line up and form an impressive curtain of water. Again it is very difficult to describe something so beautiful with words – you better have a look at the pictures.

After more than two weeks in Buenos Aires and after twenty months and three days on tour the time had come to say good bye to it all. Good bye South America, good bye travelling, good bye pure freedom. The evening before the day we left we were not very nervous. When we rode to the airport we were totally calm, we were waiting for the big emotions in vain. When the airplane rolled into starting position this was pretty exciting, but THEN, when the plane took off, in the very moment the last contact to soil was gone emotions came like a big wave, resulting in shivers running down the spine and eyes filling with tears. “It’s gone”.